


The Ballad of Wishverse Giles

by thenewbuzwuzz



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: American Politics, Ballads, Canon character deaths, Episode: s03e09 The Wish, Gen, Hope, Poetry, canon happy ending, ill-advised wildfire imagery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-06 22:56:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20514866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenewbuzwuzz/pseuds/thenewbuzwuzz
Summary: "One girl in one town in all the worldbattles darkness day in and day out,but the darkness once swelled like a wave, and it swallowedthe towns that make do without—all the towns that make do without."This is a verse retelling of "The Wish" from Wishverse!Giles' POV, with poetic liberties. It got political.





	The Ballad of Wishverse Giles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GraceNM](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GraceNM/gifts).

> Dedication: this is a [fandomtrumpshate](https://fandomtrumpshate.dreamwidth.org/) donor thank-you gift for gracenm, who agreed to receive one big poem instead of ten tiny ones.
> 
> Beta credit: thank you so much to thewiggins, who was kind enough to beta-read this FOUR TIMES and deal with my drama while I learned accentual verse and how plot even.
> 
> WARNING: unsubtle references to USA politics. If you come to fandom in order to take a break from thinking about current affairs, this might upset you. Also, I'm not from the US, though my beta is. This was just meant to be about Giles (and I hope it still is about him), but the name of fandomtrumpshate was right there, and then I started seeing opportunities for little references, and it got entirely out of hand. Anyway, it's NOT meant to be a complete and accurate model of whatever is going on in the US.
> 
> Acknowledgements: thank you to LiveJournal users snogged and double_dutchess for moral support!

One girl in one town in all the world  
battles darkness day in and day out,  
but the darkness once swelled like a wave, and it swallowed  
the towns that make do without—  
all the towns that make do without.

***

It was vampire season! The papers were full  
of thrilling murders. “Where is she?  
It's time for the forces of light to, well, slay!  
Time for some action, where is she?”  
“Where is she?” Giles wondered, waiting.

He waited in the library till a young girl  
sauntered in as the sunlight grew dim.  
But she hissed at his crosses and smirked around fangs.  
Dust fell—there was no-one but him.  
No Slayer had come. Only him.

“There’s no Slayer in Sunnydale, so there’s no call  
for a Watcher,” went his orders. Giles stayed.  
So Giles was no Watcher. Be that as it may,  
there were forces of darkness to slay.

So, each night, Giles went out to slay.

He found out in time of some Harvest affair:  
rivers of blood, quite charmless.  
Two demons disarmed him, and after the feast,  
he could leave. They were judging him harmless.  
It was hell to be helpless and harmless.

Evil crawled out from under the ground,  
proudly baring its batlike face,  
and set about making a hell to rule,  
as befit the superior race.  
A world for the Master's race.

Mammon, Mastema, and Maloker,  
Archaeus and Azazel—  
one by one they crawled out of the woodwork,  
out of the mouth of Hell.  
They came out of the mouth of Hell.

Vampires strutted down every street,  
dragging bleeding victims along.  
They banged on the doors, and they laughed, and they shouted,  
“The world belongs to the strong!”

And each night, Giles went out to slay.

Giles was only one man, so he asked the police  
how they planned to prevent all this killing.  
The police said, “Vampires don’t kill people,  
it's reckless behavior that's killing.  
(And don't they only bite if you're willing?)”

“Lock your doors after sunset,” advised the police.  
“Don’t listen to noises or cries.  
If your kids aren’t home yet, don’t let them in now,  
nor the second time, after they rise.”

But each night, Giles went out to slay.

Giles was only one man, so he went to the Mayor  
to talk of his blood-drenched town.  
But the Mayor was molting. An adder spoke for him,  
coiled on a glittery gown.  
A snake on a glittery gown.

“So tragic, these unfortunate attacks…  
The Mayor is with you in prayers.  
But as long as you know what to wear, where to walk,  
you will not be caught unawares.”

And each night, Giles went out to slay.

Finally, Giles phoned London for help.  
Travers said, “You've forfeited this right.  
There's an Old One in Cleveland, so don't waste our time.  
The Slayer has real foes to fight.”  
He left Giles alone with the fight.

Every day, Giles lent books to teenagers dressed  
in grey shades of prey. It felt right:  
books would matter when these children grew up,  
in the future he fought for at night—  
that he fought to believe in, each night.

Miss Rosenberg found the crossbows and tomes  
as Giles' confidence started to ebb.  
“I know that I’m not the One Girl Chosen,  
but I’m good at searching the Web.  
Will you let me help search on the Web?”

Her friend Xander Harris weighed in, “You bet  
that Willow has got what it takes.  
And me? I'm not one with the research mojo,  
but I sure could whittle some stakes.  
Yes, I will whittle the stakes.”

Xander’s boyfriend Larry had found  
new strength in refusing to hide.  
“I don’t have Xander’s carpentry skills,  
but running and tackling? Let’s try it!  
Let those creatures of darkness just try it!”

Summer came, and hope sparked brighter.  
They trained and slayed as days grew,  
running with human muscles sore,  
out of breath, and holes in their shoes—  
wearing out bodies and shoes.

Even a vampire took up the stake.  
“The point's what we choose to become,  
when nothing we do matters,” he said,  
and he went from whence you don’t come.

Still, each night, Giles went out to slay.

Sometimes he wondered about the Slayer,  
sent against Old Ones head on.  
He wished he could show her that tactic they’d tried  
and tell her she wasn’t a pawn.

But at night, he didn’t wish—he slayed.

The school year started, and people lived on  
and gossiped about who had dared  
to bare her neck or to kiss like there’s nothing  
to lose or to do, just despair.

But each night, Giles went out to slay.

Xander went missing and came back for Willow,  
but others joined to do good.  
Lending each other their strengths and their skills,  
unchosen, they did what they could.  
They chose to do all they could.

And each night, they went out to slay.

***

The Mayor was on the news. He hissed,  
“Great day! Today it’s one year  
since my dear friend Eyghon first came to stay.  
Alas, we have enemies here.  
Yes, right among us, I fear.”

“The enemies of the people resist  
all that we’re trying to grow  
here in Sunnydale. They offended  
Lurconis just one month ago!”

“And each night, they go out to slay!”

“I know you good people are always polite  
to our neighbors, the dearly deceased.  
They’re starting a business! They’re good for the town.  
We can all live together in peace.  
Let’s all live together in peace.”

He went on, “Please respect their belief that you are  
a snack that's cheaper than fries.  
And the reports that they’re keeping kids in cages  
at their club? What nasty, fake lies!”

And that night, they went out to slay.

Death split like dark waves around Oz’s van  
and closed behind with a swish.  
Where the wheels rolled, if only for moments,  
the monsters couldn’t do what they wished.  
They couldn’t do whatever they wished.

Two chased a victim through the still streets  
while the van turned a corner, so slow.  
A screech of tires, and it was time  
to work, wielding crosses and crossbows,  
as each night they went out to slay.

Strong Larry with stake, clever Nancy with cross  
got the victim, while Giles  
stared down the kids he'd once taught (once loved)  
across their prone classmate. They smiled.  
Across her limp body, they smiled.

Nights like this, they barely saved one,  
when who knew how many died;  
but who can chart the seas of one person,  
the worlds she carries inside?  
Who knows the worlds in her mind?

Her dress a scandalous flame of blue,  
her voice entitled and loud,  
Queen C had walked like she owned the town,  
recklessly daring and proud.  
How had she dared be so proud?

She carried memories of a life  
free of fear—a different way.  
Back at the library, she bolted upright,  
and here's what she had to say—  
the story she told that day.

“'Don't you just wish,' the demon deceived me,  
'fate punished the people you hate?  
Isn't it time the world turned around you?  
Trust me! It's gonna be great.'  
She said she would make it so great.”

“And, just for a moment, I thought, ‘Fair point!  
I reigned, I could date whomsoever—  
before those freaks invaded my life.’  
I said, 'I wish Buffy never…'  
I wished Buffy Summers had never…”

As soon as Cordelia passed on the torch  
of blazing truth, she died.  
Teeth tore her throat, but the words had escaped,  
dancing on the wind ever higher.  
The wind fanned the flame ever higher.

The dead tried to build a cage in Giles’ head,  
keep him locked behind books as they killed.  
An axe broke the lock—too late for the girls,  
but a Watcher could fight with his skill.  
He'd fight like a Watcher, with skill.

He was holding a thread of research to pull  
and unravel the dread—a spell  
to meet the maker of this mistake of a world  
and turn back the tide of hell.  
Yes, he’d turn back the tide of hell.

“It’s imperative that I see her,” he said,  
in case Cleveland helped, just in case.  
And now back to work. Not a soul would survive if  
Giles relied on the Council’s grace.  
He wouldn’t rely on their grace.

Yet grace arrived when Giles needed her most.  
Spinning-kicking too quick for the eye,  
she saved his life and brought hope—which she  
had lost. “We fight. We die.”  
“We fight,” said the Slayer. “We die.”

Finally, Giles would be a Watcher  
and help her! A dream come true.  
But she scoffed at dreams. Her eyes were a weary  
battlefield where nothing grew.  
On this battlefield, nothing grew.

The Slayer left. Alone, she would die,  
locked in the life that she knew.  
Giles hoped that this spell would work as he thought,  
to right what had gone askew.  
Could he straighten this world, so askew?

The demon of wishes hissed and crowed,  
“This is the real world now!”  
But Giles plucked the deadly nightshade berry—  
the necklace that gave her power.  
He’d crush the source of her power.

“How do you know,” the demon tried,  
“the other world can be good?  
You trusting fool! Life will never  
be as you think it should.  
Why would it be as it should?”

“Because it has to be,” Giles said.  
“I believe that the world can be good,  
and I will do what I can every day  
to make life be as it should.  
That’s why it will be as it should.”

His arm swung slow with the weight of the Earth  
turning from dark to light,  
as every night ends. The world was remade,  
dissolving in blinding white light.  
Night dissolved in a blinding white light.

***  
  
Three friends nod at him, knowing there's time  
to chat and skip class and roam,  
to hang fairy lights and to flirt and to fight  
to the death—and to win and go home.  
To rest from the fights and go home.

Wishes scatter in the wind. They could only  
take root where good people did nothing,  
but no speck of dust is left of that world.  
Not even a memory—nothing.  
It faded away and left nothing.

I like to remember how Giles fought on  
through darkness, through times inhumane.  
When the world went wrong, he believed in what’s right  
till he made the world right again.  
Hope made the world right again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! <3  
I always appreciate feedback, including about things that aren't working so well.


End file.
